The Judiciary: Spoils Spat

Last year President Eisenhower,
worried about the growing backlog of cases in U.S. courts, urged the
creation of 40 new judgeships, even offered to split them evenly
between Republicans and Democrats. But the Democratic Congress,
gambling that there would be a Democrat in the White House this year,
ignored Ike's request, waited until last May to provide for the new
judgeships, then baked itself the tastiest patronage pie in a long
while by creating 73. Last week, in what was certain to become one of
the running political fights of the year, the victors were quarreling
over the spoils.